Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba – After a nomadic decade that carried him from the Australian outback to the battlefields of Afghanistan, David Hicks ended up locked away at this remote U.S. base in Cuba, accused of training with al-Qaeda and fighting for the Taliban.
Now, more than five years since he was hauled to Guantanamo Bay, the former kangaroo skinner is expected to get a chance to contest allegations that he took up arms against the United States in the chaotic aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hicks is scheduled to be arraigned today on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. He is the first Guantanamo detainee charged under new rules for military trials, or commissions, adopted after the Supreme Court cast aside the previous system last June.
Lawyers for Hicks, 31, say he plans to plead innocent.
One of his attorneys, Joshua Dratel, dismissed as U.S. “myth ology” that the Australian is a terrorist who threatened the United States or its allies.
The U.S. military had originally charged Hicks with attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy to attack civilians, commit terrorism and destroy property. But those charges were dropped, suggesting that even the United States no longer considers Hicks to be a significant catch in its global war on terrorism.
Military charging documents depict Hicks – a high school dropout who converted to Islam in 1999 after returning from Ko sovo, where he fought on behalf of Muslim Albanians seeking independence from Serbia – as something of a hapless holy warrior.
Armed with grenades and an assault rifle, Hicks spent weeks trying to join the fight in Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion but apparently failed to win the confidence of his al-Qaeda associates, according to the documents.
He finally reached the front lines in Afghanistan two hours before they collapsed. His menial assignments along the way included guarding a tank.
He was later captured by the Northern Alliance and handed over to U.S. forces.
The charge against Hicks carries a maximum sentence of lifetime imprisonment.
